I mean think about it, these specs are for everyone, your grandma, the neighbor, etc. And given their history on windows at MY house, that means you ARE going to need 1gb of ram in order to run IE with all the spyware and virii and other garbage that unavoidably crops up with uncle jimbo downloads 15 toolbars and visits nothing but sites where my cute naked german roomate is addicted to showering live and online.
Now if they actually made a secure OS that didn't get immediately bogged down with spyware and virii, and maybe dropped IE altogether for Firefox, I can imagine you wouldn't need much more than 256 mb, which some techs I believe have verified the early betas of vista will in fact run on, with some of the eye candy turned off.
It's just tragic that no linux distro really "just works" out of the box with the majority of games and apps that people want. If a distro did (and believe me I'm constantly rooting for and trying out reactos, ubuntu, wine, and others), they would bury these ass-clowns immediately. *sigh* If only I had a couple extra mill to donate to some coders and have them really clean up a distro and make a native version of San Andreas Multiplayer that works out of box, or even an open source alternative that came bundled. That would be a big step forward for FOSS in general, and for humanity over all long term.
That is an awful strawman. Just because some people are insane does not mean that all people are insane. At this point considering the overwhelming evidence it is very clear that certain segments of our government should not be trusted whatsoever. If you can't see that, then you're pretty clueless.
I believe we landed on the moon. There's overwhelming evidence supporting this, and the documentary was fairly laughable.
Now if you believe that we were really innocent victims on 9/11, then I'd say you're just as clueless.
And to present an even more valid strawman, consider the murder of JFK.
The insurance changing hands mere hours before the attack on the WTC was enough to convince me BEFORE I saw loose change. Let's not forget the "security drills" where regular employees were kept out, etc. There is too much evidence to asuage as a nutty conspiracy theory, no matter how unflattering some random pdf propaganda is to a particular documentary.
How exactly is it obviously BS? Have you even watched it? I'm not a conspiracy nut, generally, but there is POWERFUL evidence supporting the idea that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were fully aware of all attacks on 9/11, and were in fact complicit in them.
Itunes is basically an alarmingly poor piece of code that runs essentially like a virus or spyware.
Creative has a sound card monopoly and doesn't write decent drivers for any platform, or any drivers for Linux.
Whoever makes it into the computer audio space and isn't a total asshole like these guys is going to dominate the market. Don't count on Sony, either, their track record is OBVIOUSLY bad.
Anyone wanna go halves with me and start a real computer audio company and bury these guys?
Man I can hit Fry's with a rock from my house and I STILL shop online. They beat best-buy, no doubt, but they are still overpricing video cards, hard drives, LCDs, and other components a good $70 above newegg. And newegg isn't even always the cheapest!
Case in point: I just bought a 6600gt for $130 (Including shipping/tax) three months ago. TODAY at fry's I saw a 6600 NOT GT for $179 BEFORE tax.
Even if the author seems a tad ignorant on some levels, I'd have to agree that FOSS has a way to go to get converts.
I've been dabbling in Ubuntu all week, I'm not a total n00b, but I'd rip my own eyes out if I was. It has NOT been easy.
It's getting better, but it's still a long way. There should be a point and click install option for 90% of the things a n00b might want to do. For example installing a nintendo/snes/n64 emulator, and then finding the roms to run in it.
Try doing THAT in ubuntu vs. windows, and tell me FOSS is way ahead on this. It's just not. There are many other examples as well, but this one is definitely appropriate.
After all, java in it's current inception I will NOT install on the machines I administer. Which is a shame, because I'm all for civil liberty, and freenet in particular. Why a network supposedly built on personal freedom would use a closed source programming language at all is beyond me, but that pile of dogshi.. I mean wonderful sun code.... couldn't possibly get WORSE by releasing it!
Now if only GTA would play out of box in Ubuntu..... rhY
And you'll be useful to somebody. Get really good at something, and you'll be useful to everybody. Almost doesn't matter what field. Whatever it is you REALLY enjoy, there is a way to make money at it, and a way to make yourself valuable in that field. In fact, if you REALLY enjoy it, create something new and market THAT. That's the way to make real money. I don't know anybody who makes a lot of money solely based on their education credentials. I'm sure they exist, but that breed is becoming rarer and rarer.
Because this age will be described as the cartesian catch phrase era, I feel that we should stop putting so much weight on words. Some of these "closet nerds" are just regular dudes like me who for whatever reason, diverged off the nerd path one day, but still share the same old interests. I happen to play in a big rock band or whatever, but the truth is, if one of those days 20 years ago I would've dropped the violin for a chemistry set (as I was tempted! Well, further computer research, really... even nerdier!), then today I would be as nerd as any body else in a "nerdy" field. Simple fact is, we the nerds, and we the farmers, artists, and others who support your lavish lifestyle while you improve our species, all better have a piece of nerd in ya, and be damned proud of the Einstein's, Edison's, and Davinci's that got us here.
I can think of a few scenarios worse than premature ejaculation:
Celabacy, Impotence, Extreme size deviance, Homosexuality (well, it's gonna be a problem if you're tryin' to impress a lady, whicn is the scenario I always envision with the phrase "premature ejaculation"). Blindness from Masterbation.
Well, that's just what cums off the top of my head, of what could go down worse and leave you high and dry, other than premature ejaculation.
Ok, there are a LOT of posts here describing how mac is better than windows, but that wasn't the question, stop trolling/flaming/bs.
Here's a list of what *I* like on windows, admittedly, most of it is open source and available for os x, but there ARE still more windows users out there, and more development, and essentially better software, on average. It's just a much bigger group to poll from.
The Gimp Winamp (with milkdrop) Nero Firefox Thunderbird Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Abiword Adobe Premiere Shareaza Gaim 1964 (The Nintendo64 Emulator) Sibelius Nvu Filezilla Zsnes (Super Marios at HQ4X is GORGEOUS!) Audacity Spider Solitaire VLC BSPlayer K-lite codec pak real player alternative Ghostscript/write quicktime alternative wordpad calculator
If you've missed any of these, please feel free to inspect them. Mind if I do a J?
Aren't solar panels just a certain type of silica? Couldn't we make an asphalt that doubles as a solar panel? Then use electric flywheel powered cars? US flywheels has those bitchin' carbon fiber flywheels already on the space station. Why can't we get those to replace traditional batteries by now? Anyone actually work with this stuff? I play violin, so what the fuck do I know!
Well I've read them both, and my ideas on the metaverse are more from my days of quake 2 on the LAN than anything else including those two books. Turning voice off would obviously be an option as well, and then let's remember that 2d objects can exist in a 3d world, but giving people a 3d way of navigating is going to seem MUCH more natural and really help your grandma, grandkids, etc. learn how to surf and get more relevant information. My grandma doesn't know how to use wikipedia for pete's sake, but if we made it look like a 3d library avatar, she'd be all over it.
Totally agreed. I just barely reinstalled windows on this machine, and I ain't dirtyin' it up again with java which has never worked WELL for me in the last few years (so far).
Also, let's really update freenet to run like this:
We really need an "open source" replacement for MySpace. It's dangerous to allow a private corporation to run a network that is gaining so much importance, particularly among the youth.
What would be IDEAL, however would be a fully interactive metaverse, ala quake 2 with real time voice for people within 50 "yards" of each other. And virtual houses that could still house the virtual MySpace replacement on one wall.
I've got $50 for anyone with a working prototype........I'm recommending we treat it like a p2p app so it scales well, also. Say every computer on the node houses 100 of the nearest houses and avatars and MySpace walls of the other 99 users in that "node".... Then whethter the other 99 people are on or not, other people can still visit any house (or myspace wall) in that node, so long as at least one member of the node is online. Maybe 100 is too high a number, but given what the average pc is capable of these days, I doubt it.
Let me know when you've got it up and running.......and without java.
We really need an "open source" replacement for MySpace. It's dangerous to allow a private corporation to run a network that is gaining so much importance, particularly among the youth.
What would be IDEAL, however would be a fully interactive metaverse, ala quake 2 with real time voice for people within 50 "yards" of each other. And virtual houses that could still house the virtual MySpace replacement on one wall.
I've got $50 for anyone with a working prototype........I'm recommending we treat it like a p2p app so it scales well, also. Say every computer on the node houses 100 of the nearest houses and avatars and MySpace walls of the other 99 users in that "node".... Then whethter the other 99 people are on or not, other people can still visit any house (or myspace wall) in that node, so long as at least one member of the node is online. Maybe 100 is too high a number, but given what the average pc is capable of these days, I doubt it.
Or they'll lose LOTS of business. They did default my site to MS, but I called and asked them to switch it to linux as I use php forums, and php gallery, etc.
Now given MS doesn't have the greatest track record on their first offering into a new competitive area in the tech market, but dominating the DS and PSP and iPod and even Cell phone industry would be pretty damned easy if you ask me.
Just do these 6 things: 1. Make it out of real metal and indestructible. Brushed Aluminum, or even Titanium, or Stainless steel. Real Glass for a cover. 2. Make the battery last and charge over a standard USB connection. 3. Give it plenty of capacity. (hopefully with no moving parts). 4. Make an interface that doesn't completely blow. I like the Sony Ericsson interface, kinda, but it's a tad slow. 5. Avoid load times on anything. Lose all the crappy shortcuts to features people almost never use. 6. Avoid all DRM. Just use mp3s (or even ogg!), and divx (or xvid!). Fuck aac, wmv, all those.
If you do those 6 things, everyone will buy it and use it. I'll be first in line.
Eventually somebody WILL make these, and sony/ms/apple/etc. can all kiss their non competing product lines completely good bye.
Again though, I seriously doubt MS will do it, as they are so married to wmv, and all their other own crappy ideas that nobody but porn spammers really like to use ever.
No troll, I tried futzing with a friend's ipod the other day and was dismally disappointed by build quality, software interface, and a host of other features. Then my friend said the top of the thing scratched really easily as well.
There is A LOT OF SPACE for another company to make a superior product, and bundle it with a killer open source library manager, or even just make it appear automagically as an external hard drive when you hook up the USB, and this would kill the ipod. So far, I've only seen real ipods, a zen, and some rio thing, and they were all horse shit with crappy build quality and bad interfaces. Somebody lend me 100k and I'll start the company myself and put apple and sony quickly behind the consumer curve.
Can we recover economic costs from computer data that was work related being damaged or compromised by their actions?
For instance: I've been working on a $5 million dollar picture, and now 3 of our servers are infected and we are looking at reshooting $2.5 million dollars worth of footage. If Sony would like to settle out of court for $1 million they can make a check out to Rhy Thornton, and I'm in Escondido, California. Thank you.
DRM, including the kind put into Apple's AAC files is not a good thing. This should be fought on every level. I refuse to acknowledge iTunes whatsoever, and refuse to buy products from Sony, Apple, or any other corporation foisting them on me, or society at large. This is the police state that we've been reading about for years in Sci-fi coming to pass. Do not accept DRM in any form. You may say, "yeah, it's just a sheryl crow song" or whatever for now, but all information needs to be VERY CAREFULLY managed as a resource for all and for all of our futures. Do not accept iTunes, iPods, or any other drm technology that is going to limit your freedom. Don't do it no matter HOW convenient it is.
rhY
PS On a related note, anyone know of an iPod type device that is made out of steel, has no moving parts, stores 2 gb of mp3s (no DRM!), and doesn't require iTunes spyware? I'd pay double ipod price for one of these, and so would LOTS of other music professionals.
This war has already happened, and open source is just picking off the last few closed source soldiers.
All the apps on my machine are open source (except windows itself), and where the apps go.... Eventually so will the OS. It's just gonna take a lot longer. The app war isn't even fully finished yet. Look at Gimp/Photoshop. They are still kind of duking it out, but gimp is the inevitable winner, and a few graphics profs already realise that and are jumping ship, if for no other added insentive than saving $1.5m on 500 photoshop stations or something.
Open Source has already won. Just let the last few battles play out in the pathetic ways that they will.
Slashdot Mirror
I mean think about it, these specs are for everyone, your grandma, the neighbor, etc. And given their history on windows at MY house, that means you ARE going to need 1gb of ram in order to run IE with all the spyware and virii and other garbage that unavoidably crops up with uncle jimbo downloads 15 toolbars and visits nothing but sites where my cute naked german roomate is addicted to showering live and online.
Now if they actually made a secure OS that didn't get immediately bogged down with spyware and virii, and maybe dropped IE altogether for Firefox, I can imagine you wouldn't need much more than 256 mb, which some techs I believe have verified the early betas of vista will in fact run on, with some of the eye candy turned off.
It's just tragic that no linux distro really "just works" out of the box with the majority of games and apps that people want. If a distro did (and believe me I'm constantly rooting for and trying out reactos, ubuntu, wine, and others), they would bury these ass-clowns immediately. *sigh* If only I had a couple extra mill to donate to some coders and have them really clean up a distro and make a native version of San Andreas Multiplayer that works out of box, or even an open source alternative that came bundled. That would be a big step forward for FOSS in general, and for humanity over all long term.
rhY
That is an awful strawman. Just because some people are insane does not mean that all people are insane. At this point considering the overwhelming evidence it is very clear that certain segments of our government should not be trusted whatsoever. If you can't see that, then you're pretty clueless.
I believe we landed on the moon. There's overwhelming evidence supporting this, and the documentary was fairly laughable.
Now if you believe that we were really innocent victims on 9/11, then I'd say you're just as clueless.
And to present an even more valid strawman, consider the murder of JFK.
rhY
The insurance changing hands mere hours before the attack on the WTC was enough to convince me BEFORE I saw loose change. Let's not forget the "security drills" where regular employees were kept out, etc. There is too much evidence to asuage as a nutty conspiracy theory, no matter how unflattering some random pdf propaganda is to a particular documentary.
How exactly is it obviously BS? Have you even watched it? I'm not a conspiracy nut, generally, but there is POWERFUL evidence supporting the idea that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were fully aware of all attacks on 9/11, and were in fact complicit in them.
Review your facts before you open your mouth.
rhyY
Itunes is basically an alarmingly poor piece of code that runs essentially like a virus or spyware.
Creative has a sound card monopoly and doesn't write decent drivers for any platform, or any drivers for Linux.
Whoever makes it into the computer audio space and isn't a total asshole like these guys is going to dominate the market. Don't count on Sony, either, their track record is OBVIOUSLY bad.
Anyone wanna go halves with me and start a real computer audio company and bury these guys?
rhY
Man I can hit Fry's with a rock from my house and I STILL shop online. They beat best-buy, no doubt, but they are still overpricing video cards, hard drives, LCDs, and other components a good $70 above newegg. And newegg isn't even always the cheapest!
Case in point:
I just bought a 6600gt for $130 (Including shipping/tax) three months ago.
TODAY at fry's I saw a 6600 NOT GT for $179 BEFORE tax.
Fuck that, and fuck you fry's.
rhY
Even if the author seems a tad ignorant on some levels, I'd have to agree that FOSS has a way to go to get converts.
I've been dabbling in Ubuntu all week, I'm not a total n00b, but I'd rip my own eyes out if I was. It has NOT been easy.
It's getting better, but it's still a long way. There should be a point and click install option for 90% of the things a n00b might want to do. For example installing a nintendo/snes/n64 emulator, and then finding the roms to run in it.
Try doing THAT in ubuntu vs. windows, and tell me FOSS is way ahead on this. It's just not. There are many other examples as well, but this one is definitely appropriate.
rhY
After all, java in it's current inception I will NOT install on the machines I administer. Which is a shame, because I'm all for civil liberty, and freenet in particular. Why a network supposedly built on personal freedom would use a closed source programming language at all is beyond me, but that pile of dogshi.. I mean wonderful sun code.... couldn't possibly get WORSE by releasing it!
Now if only GTA would play out of box in Ubuntu.....
rhY
I'm going to make MSN search the default search for my firefox browser. That'll teach 'em!!!
rhY
Given how bad java sucks, does it actually matter?
And you'll be useful to somebody. Get really good at something, and you'll be useful to everybody. Almost doesn't matter what field. Whatever it is you REALLY enjoy, there is a way to make money at it, and a way to make yourself valuable in that field. In fact, if you REALLY enjoy it, create something new and market THAT. That's the way to make real money. I don't know anybody who makes a lot of money solely based on their education credentials. I'm sure they exist, but that breed is becoming rarer and rarer.
rhY
Because this age will be described as the cartesian catch phrase era, I feel that we should stop putting so much weight on words. Some of these "closet nerds" are just regular dudes like me who for whatever reason, diverged off the nerd path one day, but still share the same old interests. I happen to play in a big rock band or whatever, but the truth is, if one of those days 20 years ago I would've dropped the violin for a chemistry set (as I was tempted! Well, further computer research, really... even nerdier!), then today I would be as nerd as any body else in a "nerdy" field. Simple fact is, we the nerds, and we the farmers, artists, and others who support your lavish lifestyle while you improve our species, all better have a piece of nerd in ya, and be damned proud of the Einstein's, Edison's, and Davinci's that got us here.
I suspect we do anyway.
I can think of a few scenarios worse than premature ejaculation:
Celabacy,
Impotence,
Extreme size deviance,
Homosexuality (well, it's gonna be a problem if you're tryin' to impress a lady, whicn is the scenario I always envision with the phrase "premature ejaculation").
Blindness from Masterbation.
Well, that's just what cums off the top of my head, of what could go down worse and leave you high and dry, other than premature ejaculation.
rhY
Ok, there are a LOT of posts here describing how mac is better than windows, but that wasn't the question, stop trolling/flaming/bs.
Here's a list of what *I* like on windows, admittedly, most of it is open source and available for os x, but there ARE still more windows users out there, and more development, and essentially better software, on average. It's just a much bigger group to poll from.
The Gimp
Winamp (with milkdrop)
Nero
Firefox
Thunderbird
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Abiword
Adobe Premiere
Shareaza
Gaim
1964 (The Nintendo64 Emulator)
Sibelius
Nvu
Filezilla
Zsnes (Super Marios at HQ4X is GORGEOUS!)
Audacity
Spider Solitaire
VLC
BSPlayer
K-lite codec pak
real player alternative
Ghostscript/write
quicktime alternative
wordpad
calculator
If you've missed any of these, please feel free to inspect them. Mind if I do a J?
rhY
I'll be in line behind you.
I think we just had a brokeback slashdot moment.
rhY
Aren't solar panels just a certain type of silica? Couldn't we make an asphalt that doubles as a solar panel? Then use electric flywheel powered cars? US flywheels has those bitchin' carbon fiber flywheels already on the space station. Why can't we get those to replace traditional batteries by now? Anyone actually work with this stuff? I play violin, so what the fuck do I know!
rhY
Well I've read them both, and my ideas on the metaverse are more from my days of quake 2 on the LAN than anything else including those two books. Turning voice off would obviously be an option as well, and then let's remember that 2d objects can exist in a 3d world, but giving people a 3d way of navigating is going to seem MUCH more natural and really help your grandma, grandkids, etc. learn how to surf and get more relevant information. My grandma doesn't know how to use wikipedia for pete's sake, but if we made it look like a 3d library avatar, she'd be all over it.
rhY
Totally agreed. I just barely reinstalled windows on this machine, and I ain't dirtyin' it up again with java which has never worked WELL for me in the last few years (so far).
...I'm recommending we treat it like a p2p app so it scales well, also. Say every computer on the node houses 100 of the nearest houses and avatars and MySpace walls of the other 99 users in that "node".... Then whethter the other 99 people are on or not, other people can still visit any house (or myspace wall) in that node, so long as at least one member of the node is online. Maybe 100 is too high a number, but given what the average pc is capable of these days, I doubt it.
...and without java.
Also, let's really update freenet to run like this:
We really need an "open source" replacement for MySpace. It's dangerous to allow a private corporation to run a network that is gaining so much importance, particularly among the youth.
What would be IDEAL, however would be a fully interactive metaverse, ala quake 2 with real time voice for people within 50 "yards" of each other. And virtual houses that could still house the virtual MySpace replacement on one wall.
I've got $50 for anyone with a working prototype.....
Let me know when you've got it up and running....
K thanks.
rhY
We really need an "open source" replacement for MySpace. It's dangerous to allow a private corporation to run a network that is gaining so much importance, particularly among the youth.
...I'm recommending we treat it like a p2p app so it scales well, also. Say every computer on the node houses 100 of the nearest houses and avatars and MySpace walls of the other 99 users in that "node".... Then whethter the other 99 people are on or not, other people can still visit any house (or myspace wall) in that node, so long as at least one member of the node is online. Maybe 100 is too high a number, but given what the average pc is capable of these days, I doubt it.
What would be IDEAL, however would be a fully interactive metaverse, ala quake 2 with real time voice for people within 50 "yards" of each other. And virtual houses that could still house the virtual MySpace replacement on one wall.
I've got $50 for anyone with a working prototype.....
Let me know when you've got it up and running....
rhY
Or they'll lose LOTS of business. They did default my site to MS, but I called and asked them to switch it to linux as I use php forums, and php gallery, etc.
rhY
Now given MS doesn't have the greatest track record on their first offering into a new competitive area in the tech market, but dominating the DS and PSP and iPod and even Cell phone industry would be pretty damned easy if you ask me.
Just do these 6 things:
1. Make it out of real metal and indestructible. Brushed Aluminum, or even Titanium, or Stainless steel. Real Glass for a cover.
2. Make the battery last and charge over a standard USB connection.
3. Give it plenty of capacity. (hopefully with no moving parts).
4. Make an interface that doesn't completely blow. I like the Sony Ericsson interface, kinda, but it's a tad slow.
5. Avoid load times on anything. Lose all the crappy shortcuts to features people almost never use.
6. Avoid all DRM. Just use mp3s (or even ogg!), and divx (or xvid!). Fuck aac, wmv, all those.
If you do those 6 things, everyone will buy it and use it. I'll be first in line.
Eventually somebody WILL make these, and sony/ms/apple/etc. can all kiss their non competing product lines completely good bye.
Again though, I seriously doubt MS will do it, as they are so married to wmv, and all their other own crappy ideas that nobody but porn spammers really like to use ever.
rhY
No troll, I tried futzing with a friend's ipod the other day and was dismally disappointed by build quality, software interface, and a host of other features. Then my friend said the top of the thing scratched really easily as well.
There is A LOT OF SPACE for another company to make a superior product, and bundle it with a killer open source library manager, or even just make it appear automagically as an external hard drive when you hook up the USB, and this would kill the ipod. So far, I've only seen real ipods, a zen, and some rio thing, and they were all horse shit with crappy build quality and bad interfaces. Somebody lend me 100k and I'll start the company myself and put apple and sony quickly behind the consumer curve.
rhY
Can we recover economic costs from computer data that was work related being damaged or compromised by their actions?
For instance: I've been working on a $5 million dollar picture, and now 3 of our servers are infected and we are looking at reshooting $2.5 million dollars worth of footage. If Sony would like to settle out of court for $1 million they can make a check out to Rhy Thornton, and I'm in Escondido, California. Thank you.
rhY
DRM, including the kind put into Apple's AAC files is not a good thing. This should be fought on every level. I refuse to acknowledge iTunes whatsoever, and refuse to buy products from Sony, Apple, or any other corporation foisting them on me, or society at large. This is the police state that we've been reading about for years in Sci-fi coming to pass. Do not accept DRM in any form. You may say, "yeah, it's just a sheryl crow song" or whatever for now, but all information needs to be VERY CAREFULLY managed as a resource for all and for all of our futures. Do not accept iTunes, iPods, or any other drm technology that is going to limit your freedom. Don't do it no matter HOW convenient it is.
rhY
PS On a related note, anyone know of an iPod type device that is made out of steel, has no moving parts, stores 2 gb of mp3s (no DRM!), and doesn't require iTunes spyware? I'd pay double ipod price for one of these, and so would LOTS of other music professionals.
This war has already happened, and open source is just picking off the last few closed source soldiers.
All the apps on my machine are open source (except windows itself), and where the apps go.... Eventually so will the OS. It's just gonna take a lot longer. The app war isn't even fully finished yet. Look at Gimp/Photoshop. They are still kind of duking it out, but gimp is the inevitable winner, and a few graphics profs already realise that and are jumping ship, if for no other added insentive than saving $1.5m on 500 photoshop stations or something.
Open Source has already won. Just let the last few battles play out in the pathetic ways that they will.
rhY